Tag: Obama

Congratulations to the 20 Fellows chosen out of 20,000 applicants. When the Obama Foundation opened applications for the inaugural Obama Foundation Fellowship,2018, over 20,000 people from 191 countries applied. From that incredible pool, they selected 20 inaugural Fellows who represent 11 countries around the world. Welcome to the Fellows: Erin Barnes, Veronica Crespin-Palmer, Clarissa Delgado, … More Meet the Obama Foundation’s First Group of Fellows

Office of Civil Rights will no longer take action on transgender discrimination WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Education will not investigate or take action on any complaints filed by transgender students who are not able to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity. BuzzFeed was first to report the news. Under President … More U.S. Department of Education Leaves Transgender Students Behind

We are an immigrant family: My daughter was adopted from Vietnam when she was an infant and we went through an enormous amount of uncertainty before securing her entry into the United States and her citizenship. I was also undocumented for a period of time and thankfully now for 20 plus years, a naturalized United … More Why DACA is So Personal

Yeah all 62,979,879 plus of them ….. By Melanie Nathan, December 30, 2016. As the New Year approaches, and in looking to write up my annual Heroes and Zeroes I could not help but notice that this year 62,979,879 ZEROES voted for a sick, mentally deficient, hateful, misogynistic, racist, sexual predator, who happens also to be a xenophobic, … More 2016 Heroes and Zeroes yields an unprecedented number of Zeroes

* Leadership * Commitment * Impact * NBJC World AIDS Day Statement: December 1, 2016 marks the 28th Anniversary of World AIDS Day. The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, including people living with HIV/AIDS, joins … More World AIDS Day NBJC Lauds President Obama and What You Can do

Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Releases Video Statement on Hate Crimes in the United States By Melanie Nathan, Nv 18, 2016. As the United States contemplates parting ways with the extraordinary President Obama Administration and his crew of appointees, who care about fellow Americans, in exchange for the bigot racist homophobic fascist goons who Donald Trump has already … More Attorney General Lynch Statement on Spike in Hate Crimes

In the wake of the biggest mass shooting in American history, which took the lives of 50 people and wounded 53 more, in a LGBT nightclub massacre, politicians, organizations, and individuals in the United States and from around the world, are showing solidarity with an outpouring of grief and words of support: Equality Florida: We … More Outpouring of Grief for and by the LGBTQI Community Mourning with Orlando

The Republican controlled Oklahoma Legislature adjourned Friday without passing proposed legislation targeting transgender children. If signed into law, Senate Bill 1619 would have legalized discrimination against transgender children who need to use the restroom at school. The measure would have also required schools to create separate facilities for any student who refuses to share a … More Oklahoma legislature adjourns without adopting bill targeting transgender students

Several high profile LGBT community members, activists and leaders have written articles expressing disdain at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) decision to endorse Republican Senator Mark Kirk, instead of Rep. Tammy Duckworth, for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat. HRC did not budge. Duckworth has been endorsed by President Obama, VP Biden, MOVEON.ORG, Daily Kos, and … More Equality Activists Ask HRC To Reverse Endorsement for US Senate

President Obama has just appointed DC Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland to take deceased Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The President delivered a powerful speech introducing the Judge and invoked his and the Senate’s constitutional duty, challenging the already asserted obstructionist Republican stance to deny this … More President Obama Appoints Merrick Garland for SCOTUS

I just turned on CNN and saw the news. SCALIA is DEAD! Sitting Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Justice Antonin Scalia died this morning at age 79. He has served 30 years in the High Court, appointed at age 50 by Ronald Reagan in 1986. He was a conservative! … More LGBT Americans Respond to SCALIA Death

By Hassan M. Ahmad, Esq, January 05, 2016. The Department of Homeland Security has begun launching raids against undocumented immigrants with recent orders of deportation. This reversal of prioritization shifts DHS’s focus to those who pose the least threat. The planned raids won’t focus on people with criminal backgrounds, or those who are threats to … More DHS Immigration Raids Reverse Policy of Deporting Felons, Not Families

hese Democrats allowed themselves to get hauled into a vote on minimal notice and were suckered into the Republican narrative, without doing extensive research. That one terrorist in Paris turned us against refugees is a sign of cowardice and gives the terrorists the upper hand, a victory. We have allowed them to further victimize the most vulnerable victims of their murderous campaign. I am ashamed of these Democrats – truly ashamed!

Stonewall Inn deserves our highest recognition,” said Senator Gillibrand. “Victories like the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the passage of marriage equality in New York State and the final, decisive Supreme Court ruling securing our freedom to marry, were borne from the modern equal rights movement launched at Stonewall. It’s time for a national monument honoring the legacy of people and events that took place here.” … More Urging U.S. President to Designate Stonewall as National Monument to Honor LGBT Struggle

Gregg Jaffe at The Washington Post seems to think so…. By Melanie Nathan, September 18, 2015. President Obama will apparently nominate Eric Fanning to lead the United States Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services. While the Washington Post reports that this is … More Was Fanning Chosen by President Obama to Lead the Army Because he is Gay?

By Melanie Nathan, July 29, 2015. The Ugandan media has named the issue of homosexuality as a reason President Obama may have snubbed Uganda by not visiting that country while on his recent trip to Africa. The President visited only two countries; Ethiopia and Kenya. I think that President Obama did not overlook Uganda. I … More Did President Obama Snub Uganda because of its Anti-Homosexuality Stance?

By Melanie Nathan, July 28, 2015. United States President Barack Obama concluded his visit to Africa today after speaking at the African Union’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. This was the first time a sitting US president addressed the AU. President Obama asserted that Africa would not advance if its leaders refuse to … More Obama tells African Union Nobody should be president for life

And warns that treating people unequally leads to bad things By Melanie Nathan, July 25, 2015. At a news conference held in in Nairobi with U.S. President Barack Obama and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, both spoke in agreement on all issues, except that of gay human rights. President Obama responded to the question with brazen … More Obama Defies Kenya Anti-Homosexuality Stance by Speaking for Equality

By Melanie Nathan, July 24, 2015. United States President Barack Obama has arrived in Kenya on the first visit to that country, since serving as US president. During his two-day visit the President will hold talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and other top officials. Arriving in Kenya, where his father was born, he was … More President Obama Arrives in Kenya in Climate of Anti-Gay Sentiment

Calls into Question Whether UNHCR is able to adequately protect LGBT Refugees By Melanie Nathan, July 9, 2015 This morning, four young Ugandan urban refugees were eating breakfast in the privacy of their rental premises in Kenya, when a mob entered the gate and started banging on their door and window screaming anti-gay slurs. After … More Kenyan Police detain Ugandan Refugees Victims of Anti-Gay Mob Attack

Posted By Melanie Nathan, April 09, 2015. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released this statement today following President Obama’s call to end the harmful psychiatric therapies aimed at “converting” LGBT people, especially children and youth: “LGBT lives matter. Yet, we have lost too many loved ones who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender as the result … More Nancy Pelosi on Obama call for Conversion Therapy Ban

New Polling Shows Millennials Overwhelmingly Support Comprehensive LGBT Nondiscrimination Protections Posted by Melanie Nathan, April 7, 2015. Despite historic progress on marriage equality over the past decade, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, individuals still lack basic, enumerated protections from discrimination in several areas of life, from the workplace to the public marketplace. However, … More New Poll Shows Millennials Support Comprehensive LGBT Protections

Republicans roll off the Hill, while Democrats traverse Mt. Everest By Melanie Nathan, February 17, 2015. Republicans would be calling the Judge who barred President Obama’s Immigration Executive Orders ‘an activist Judge’ – albeit tit-for-tat – indeed he may be – but did the Judge fall into a trap? Do we really think the appeals … More Why Obama has won on the Immigration EO